Israel Adesanya predicts 'clean sweep' of Marvin Vettori at UFC 263

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya says he's anticipating the moment during their rematch when Marvin Vettori realizes he has nothing for him.

Video Transcript

KEVIN IOLE: Hey, folks. Kevin Iole from Yahoo Sports. One of my favorites to always talk to, look forward to it all the time when there's a title fight coming up, the Middleweight Champion of the world, Israel Adesanya. Of course, he's fighting on Saturday UFC 263 in the main event against Marvin Vettori. And I like that tweet you put out the other day. I think I saw my face on your Twitter page for the first time now. I love that.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Wait for the next one this week. I've got some clips. I've got some clips, and I don't mean just video clips of you two talking about some clips. I'm ready for news on them, and it's because of that. My brother put me on to that interview about some things. I've been working, again, with this guy who's been helping with my dogs. Because I've always been into, like, dog psychology.

KEVIN IOLE: He's usually hanging in the background laying right here.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Oh, really? Oh, beautiful. What kind of dog?

KEVIN IOLE: I have basset hounds.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: A basset hound. Oh, like Droopy. Awesome.

KEVIN IOLE: Big long ears, yeah.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Yeah. So yeah. I'm into dog psychology and stuff. And I've been working with this guy for about maybe four weeks now. And doing that, I've kind of like reinvigorated my love for that stuff. And in doing that, It's made me more aware of nonverbal cues in people. And yeah, I got some more clips of yours and his interview that I expose a lot. And yeah. You didn't do anything. All you did was ask just the simple questions, and I could see some nonverbal cues.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, there was one thing when he spoke Italian to the person offstage here. And I said, hey, my father used to speak to me in Italian, but you can't repeat the words that he said. I thought I would get a laugh out of him, and instead he's just going back talking about--

ISRAEL ADESANYA: I know exactly what that is. I know exactly what that was, because you asked the basic question, a basic question about him not doing any damage when he was on top, which is what you're supposed to do. And he just had, like, a-- and then just had to, like, disconnect and speak Italian, because he had nothing to say. Then he came back to the question again. You tried to give him an out, but he just came back to it again and just fucked himself up. Well, there's more. Don't worry. I enjoyed that interview. Good job. Good job.

KEVIN IOLE: Well, we need all the traffic. So we're happy to have you do that. You know, I wanted to ask you this. On your Twitter page-- and the reason I brought that up was, you know, I noticed you said, follow me from a distance. And you had a long post on there the other day where you were kind of talking about give us time and space. Is the pressure of being the champion kind of getting to you when you're out in public, and you're recognized, and people are coming up to you? Is that what I'm seeing with that post you put up and the follow me from a distance line?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Oh, OK. That one, that's a old, like, that was on my description, I believe. But yeah. That was just like, follow me from a distance. But yeah. This post I just put, because I've noticed, you know, what's been happening in the NBA with fans. And I guess people are kind of like, especially in America, sick of being locked down. They get thirsty for this beautiful violence, you know. And I just want fans to be respectful, because I think they forget that we're humans, too.

You know, I mean, imagine if you're chilling there on your phone in the lobby or something, and you're maybe in a good mood, maybe in a bad mood. Maybe you're cutting weight, because a lot of these people don't understand what it's like when you cutting weight and how your mood can just switch. And someone just comes out of nowhere. Oh my god, what the, and your adrenals go up. And they just give you a fright. You're like, bro, hey. It's OK. And it's so crazy. Like, yeah. I just want people to respect fighters. And I'm not saying give me-- like, just respect the space. See, like, is he in a rush? Is he busy? Because sometimes we got shit to do. We're trying to get to this place and make this meeting or make this time, and you want us to sign 10 different items? It's not really cool. And also just, yeah.

Like, I've had some really cool interactions with fans. That's what I said at the talk. An example, I was in the Jacuzzi the other day. And I was just talking to this couple who, I think, they were just, not their honeymoon. They were just getting away. And then about 15 minutes into the conversation, they were like, by the way, we're huge fans. I was like, oh, yeah, that's awesome. But it's kind of cool to just like-- yeah. But, I mean, it was kind of cool. Like, they just let me just-- they just treated me like another person, and then they told me, like, you know who would really be killing to be in my position right now is my friend Phil. And I was like, oh, let me send him a video. And I sent him a video off their phone.

And I think they put on their group chat, and then he responded like, just, what the fuck. And it was kind of cool to make someone's day with little things. Like, that's what I meant by like little special things like that. I do for fans who are really cool. And they were just a cool couple. I can't remember their name. But yeah, shout out to those guys. They were just cool, and they just treated me like a regular person, like a human being, and not just some toy to pass around. Like, let me get you my grandma. They didn't even take a picture. But I just said, let me send a video to your friend.

KEVIN IOLE: That's awesome.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: If you call him your friend. And yeah, little cool things like that I'd like to do for fans who are cool. But when people, oh, can I get an autograph, and then they like that to bring out like, 10 different items, I'm like, bro, what the fuck are you doing. Or they come back the next day with new items. I'm like, no. We're not doing this. Like, you're not entitled to my signature. I don't owe you shit. You understand? I appreciate the fans. I love the fans. But yeah. I need to protect my energy and my space.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, and I guess what bothers a lot of people, hey, if it's a kid that really looks up to you, but if it's an adult with 10 things, you know, clearly you pretty-- they're trying to sell it. Right?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Say that on record right now. On the record right now, you'll never see each turn down a kid. Even if I'm having a bad day, even if I'm having the worst day, you'll never see me turn on a kid, because that kid, you know, that moment for them could change their life.

KEVIN IOLE: Right.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: So you will never see me turn down a kid. Like, you can even see on the new embedded, you know, my interaction with some of the kids there. And even the day before that, some kids were waiting outside the gym. And one of them was like, oh, can you sign this. And he had another one. Like, oh, can you sign this for my friend Mike? He can't be here.

And I gave them the time of day, because that was really cool. Your friend can't be here, and you wanted to get him a signature, as well. That's awesome. That's pure. That's the Innocence of a child. But if you're a grown ass man and you're getting mad at me because I'm at a gas station and you want me to fucking take a photo by a gas pump, it's like, bro, first of all, there's a sign right there that says no cell phones. You're getting mad at me, saying, oh, what an asshole.

KEVIN IOLE: You might be the only one that follows that rule, though.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Oh, yeah. I mean, I just want to light up on fire because of a fan, you know. I'm just, like, on record you will never see me turn on a kid. And people have used that to their advantage, as well. And especially like, when the kid doesn't know me, and the kid doesn't want to take a photo with me, it's kind of-- because I'm like, I ask the kid first. You want to take a picture? If the kid kind of shies away, I'm like, he really doesn't.

But sometimes I understand it's awkward sometimes. And also, I'm human. It's weird for me as well in this situation. Like, I get nervous sometimes, like, anxious. Like, I don't want to be carrying this crying kid, because you want to force him to take a photo with me, because then it just feels weird. So yeah. But a kid that wants to take a photo with me, genuinely, you'll never see me turn them down.

KEVIN IOLE: That's awesome. Now, you're 20-1 with 15 KOs. And you say, I finish fights, and you do. So I got to hear the Ken Flow voice. Let's hear that Ken Flow voice.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: I finish fights.

KEVIN IOLE: Our buddy Kenny Florian. That's the man. Do you feel like this is a fight, you know, I'm sure you've been working on your wrestling, because you know what Vittori wants to do, what he did last time. Do you feel like, you know, you need to make a statement again to remind people who the style bender is?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: This is what I do. I mean, this is almost like deja vu. You know, after the Romero fight, you know, oh my god. He's so scared. He's boring. I was like, all right. Bet. And then what happened in the Costa fight? Everyone was like, oh my god. Costa walked down Romero. He walked down Romero. How's he going to beat him when we run away from Romero? And then after the Costa fight, they're like, oh, yeah, Romero was scared. He just stood there. Didn't want to engage, because I fucked Costa up in more ways than one.

So yeah. It's what I do. People, after this last fight, will be like oh, just take him down, and then you win the fight. It's like, really, because no one's ever tried that, because I didn't put Brad Tavares in the guillotine, because I didn't put home boy's team Kelvin Gastelum in a triangle, because I didn't even-- I single leg Xed him in our last fight. And I swept him, so people want to just-- it's recency bias. They forget. They almost forgot. They forget. So again, I'm just going to do what I do. I'm just going to do what I do, and then they'll remember, like, oh yeah. That's right. He's the shit. He's the Middleweight Champion of the world. So yeah.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, that fight, it was a close fight. I thought you won the fight. You know, the judge Chris Lee who scored it for Marvin has been on the wrong side of a lot of split decisions.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: This time, shout out to my man Tim, because-- and Eugene. Eugene already made a complaint a while back to, I think, Mick saying we never want him to judge again. And apparently, he was scheduled to judge this fight again. And shoutout to man Tim from Paradigm. He said no fucking way. And yeah. We got him out of there. No disrespect to him, but full disrespect to him if you actually thought Marvin won the last fight.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, I guess I was going to ask you this. Like, so do you feel like the fight will be the same way because, you know, you fought three rounds 15 minutes, you both know each other, or because you both have gotten better, will the fight play out differently?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: It'll play out differently this time. It'll play out a lot differently this time. And I can just say, since we last fought, look at the run he's been on, and look at the run I've been on. I can name two guys he's fought that are actually like kind of notable names. You can name every single person I've fought. Sing to them, because we're not the same. We've been on two different trains. And yeah. he's not fast enough. He hasn't caught up yet. He's still lagging. He's way behind.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, and you lost the Light Heavyweight Title fight, too. And I actually had it. I guess I was in the minority. I had it 3-2 for you. I gave you the first three rounds and John Brockovich the last two rounds. So I guess some people gave round three to him. But in any event, you know, you handled that loss very well at the post fight press conference. But when you got away from it and there was some distance, was it frustrating to you, Izzie, because you think, hey, there's things I could have done that would have helped me win that fight that I didn't do?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Not too much. Not really. There was two moments in that fight that I didn't capitalize on. And afterwards, it kind of, like, ate at me a little bit, and I was like, I should have. And it was two moments in that fight I felt like I should have capitalized on. But no. And also, just my over-- because he's a veteran. Like, my over aggressiveness cost me in that fight when I knew he was getting tired. So I should have just stuck to my guns, and stuck to my game plan and kept my distance. But when I knew he was tired, and he knew I knew that he was tired, yeah. It was a good chess move on his part to read that and then use that momentum to take me down.

KEVIN IOLE: How much do you think the aura of invincibility is a factor? You know, like when Mike Tyson lost for the first time, all of a sudden he lost more times, because people weren't as intimidated by him. I think even in MMA, Rhonda Rousey had that same thing. You know, she loses. People were afraid of her. She's winning all these fights by first round submission. Then she loses. Bingo. She loses right back again. Do you worry about that, like, the aura of invincibility of you being gone, and that people now feel like there's a way to attack you?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: No. I mean, like I said, I had that after the Romero fight where people thought like, oh, he ain't the shit. I was like, all right. Bet. I'm just going to do what I do, because I know I'm the shit. So yeah, I don't really-- I don't care about these things, even losses. Like, I've lost many times in my life, but I'm still undefeated. Jamie said that. So yeah. I don't really hold on to that like a thing, because I think that's from boxing where it's a flawed model where it's like you have to be undefeated or something, like, to be a great. No. You know, we learn a lot from our losses in life. You know, we learn a lot from our losses in fights, and they make us better as people, as fighters.

So I've never-- there was never any pressure, as well, to, like, keep that record of undefeated or whatever. Like, it couldn't bother me less. I get my ass whooped in the gym. Shoutout to my man Ful. Rest in peace. In our last sparring session, it was all caught on tape. You might see it in my documentary. He whopped my ass. Like, Jesus Christ. I was like, my first round, I wanted to go to the deep end straight away, and I was like, Ful, let's go. And yeah. So, I mean, I get my ass whooped. I also give some ass whoopings. But it's life. That's part of life. And you--

KEVIN IOLE: How does that happen? I hear guys say that all the time. I'll never see anything worse than I see in the gym. And yet, you know, you're the best fighter in the world, and you're fighting in the fights the best fighters in the world. How is it that you're in the gym and you're getting beaten up? I mean, that's the one thing that's sort of a disconnect. Right? You know, just like, well the best fighters in the world are Yoel Romero, and yada, yada, yada, the people you've been fighting.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Yeah. I mean, if you trained the way we do, you understand. Or if you train with the people we do, you'd understand. You can't be your best, or you can't be your best every single day. But on my worst day, I can still beat the best man in the world. Hashtag I don't want to say it.

KEVIN IOLE: One or two other things, and I'll let you get out of here. Number one. I'm curious. What do you think of all these MMA fighters that are out there calling out the Paul brothers? I mean, you know, I'm not a big fan of these fights. I'm happy that fighters are making money on it. So I'll start with that, saying I want to see the fighters make big money. And if they do, I'm happy with it. But just from a sports competitive standpoint, I don't care for these kind of fights. And I wonder what you think hearing some of your peers out there, you know, begging to fight the Paul brothers, who combined, what do they have, five fights, I think.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Yeah. I don't think they're on the same pay grade as me, first of all. So that's why they're doing that. And second of all, for me it's my martial arts integrity. Like, I've already boxed before at the highest level I could. You know, so why would I go to a-- I mean, why would I go to another sport that's very limiting, a limited style of fighting, a gentleman's agreement to just use our hands when I've got so many of the tools that I can use? So I don't really care to go to boxing to go prove anything.

And even this weekend, I enjoyed the fight. I found myself, like-- I wasn't really, like, at first, I was like, oh, it's a silly-- like he doesn't even-- like, why is Logan in there? But then, like, as the fight got closer, like, the day before and the day of, I found myself actually excited to watch the fight. And I was just like, oh, shit. There's some tension in there. What if he gets it done? What if he actually, like, clips Floyd or something? Even at the end of the first round when he flirted on him, it was like, oh, holy shit. It was exciting. It's entertaining. That's the thing. And Floyd's done. He's retired.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: You know what I'm saying? So yeah. It's like it's entertainment. And he likes money, you know. I'm sure Logan likes money. It made a hell of a lot of money. So if two people want to fight, and people want to watch it, because I eventually got interested in watching it, then what's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that. But I know what you mean by the, I guess, for some of these fighters who are active, not retired, who are active, and are trying to fight, you know, the Paul brothers for some pay day.

For me, I feel like it's not my cup of tea either. But if someone like Floyd and Logan Paul did something like that, and made a hell of a lot of money, and kept it entertaining, it was an entertaining fight. I actually enjoyed it. And also for me, it was fun to see Floyd dance again. Like, some basic shit. Oh, it was so cool. It was cool to see him use his skills and just watch that. Like, the artistry of it was fun. I enjoyed that fight.

KEVIN IOLE: I covered 43 of Floyd's 50 pro fights in person. And I've been at the gym a million times watching him train. And, you know, the only thing I didn't like about that was, you know, I'm watching an old guy. Right? And that was not Floyd Mayweather. Like, I think Floyd Mayweather in the 2001 version, you know, the fast. You couldn't hit him. And then seeing that, it was like, yeah.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: I know what you mean. I know what you mean. But he still showed some skills. He still showed some of those skills. Like, sometimes he'd faint me out. I'd be watching the TV, and I think the jab's coming in. The right hand comes. I'm like, oh, he tricked me. Did you see that? Like, it was awesome, man. I liked it.

KEVIN IOLE: Well, let's rap on this. So--

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Never see me in there. You will never see me in a boxing ring again. If anyone wants smoke, I can fight. I don't box. I fight.

KEVIN IOLE: I like it. I like it. Last thing. How does this fight finish with Vittori? You said it's going to be a little bit different this time. Do you feel like you finish him?

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Yeah, I want to finish the job, the Italian job. I want to finish the jobber, part two. But I'll give him this. He's tough. But my idea, I'm even worried about finishing him. The finish comes. You don't really go looking for the finish. The finish comes. 5-0, 5-0 clean sweep, completely. In the middle of that, if he falls, he falls. 5-0 clean sweep. I want him to know that grappling, clench, stand up, and everywhere I beat him.

So that way at the end, he just knows, like, I had nothing. I had nothing for this guy. That I'll be the best victory, just to see that. I see that when that goes away from the eyes. I see it normally, and then they kind of just, like, it's like the soul leaves them. Like, I have nothing left. I know that feeling. I've seen it before. So yeah. I want to feel that from him when he has nothing left.

KEVIN IOLE: I'll make a recommendation for you. Just, you know, you referenced the words Italian Job here. And, you know, maybe if you do a documentary on this fight, that should be the name of it. Right? Could be a movie.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: Oh, nice. The Italian Job two. Like, in the documentary, I'm going to have these segments in the flight. The Italian Job one, and then the Italian Job two, the sequel. Finish the jobber.

KEVIN IOLE: Middleweight Champ of the UFC, Israel Adesanya. He fights on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona against Martin Vittori. Izzie, thank you for your time. All the best to you, my friend.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: My man. Thank you, Kevin. Good man.